Strategy Brief

Distilled from Strategy Brief in Product Templates

When to use

Activate when a PM needs to write a product strategy document, or when reviewing a strategy brief for completeness.

Purpose

Align cross-org and cross-functional teams on the strategy that will drive key initiatives over the next 18–24 months.

Required sections

1. Problems you are solving [P0]

• State the problems in a few bullet points.
• Why are we interested in solving these problems?
• Who are the target customers and users?
• Pinpoint: are the problems software, hardware, data, infrastructure, policy, or something else?
• Opportunity: How do these problems manifest in the bottom line? Cost, time, resources, partner delays?

2. How are those problems being solved today? [P0]

• What is wrong with current solutions?
• Who else is trying to solve this? What have they tried? Why haven’t they succeeded?

3. What’s your solution? [P0]

• Key initiatives — outline the solution in a few bullet points.
• Unique value proposition.
• Unfair advantage.
• Why is success strategically important for the company?
• Who will pay for this?

4. How will you deliver the solution? [P0]

• What does successful execution require over the next 12–18 months? Key engineering decisions, product tradeoffs.
• Key delivery milestones.
• Go-to-market / launch strategy in a few bullets.
• Key risks.

5. Key indicators / metrics

• What are the leading indicators of success and failure?

6. Needs / asks

• What do you need for success?
• What dependencies or blockers need clearing?

Actions

• When drafting a strategy brief, fill every [P0] section before sharing for review. Non-P0 sections can be iterated.
• When reviewing a strategy brief, check: does it pass Rumelt’s kernel test (diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent actions)?
• Flag any brief that describes a solution without first articulating the problem.